Justice delayed is justice denied, Taiwan scholar’s war against human rights violations of minorities in the U.S.A. unveils the sorry state of American legal, academic and judiciary systems.
July 16, 2021: While Americans are posting hate slogans against the Chinese government for alleged mass spreading of the menacing Wu-Han Virus, it’s a crying shame that their own country has abetted racism and serious discriminatory activities against foreign migrants and minorities for years, especially the Asians. Yung-Kai (Andy) Lu, former research scholar from University of Utah, has been one such unfortunate victim who was subjected to gross employment discrimination by the University, putting his whole career and professional reputation in jeopardy. He has taken several legal actions since 2011 against the injustice perpetrated to him but was deliberately denied justice under fake allegations by the U.S. State Government agencies time and again.
A brilliant scholar embroiled into racial hate
In 2010, following his Master’s degree from Indiana University, Bloomington, Andy Lu enrolled into the University of Utah to pursue a doctoral degree in music performance. He was promised full scholarship for the course, along with the added benefit of placement in the designation of graduate assistant.
It was peachy keen initially until February 2011, the month when Lu was forced to voice against hostile racial discrimination witnessed at the University. Previously, he had filed a complaint to Miguel Chuaqui, Director of the Composition Department, regarding being defrauded by his colleague George Marie while he was working on a new composition for Lu. Lu reported that Marie never contacted him and that he, Chuaqui, was unwilling to write. He only handed to Lu a poor quality composition which led Lu to complain to Chuaqui that it was grossly racist for him to treat Lu in such an unprofessional manner.
In April 2011, Lu was notified by his professor, Donn Schaefer, that his name has been removed from the assistant award list and he was henceforth requested to shift to another university. By the time the notification was sent to him, the deadline for applying to other universities had already expired. Lu filed an immediate complain to the University Director Robert Baldwin but Baldwin did not want to challenge Chuaqui’s fake accusation against Lu and also asked Lu to transfer.
Termination of right to scholarship and employment on false charges
In May 2011, 8 faculty and staff members from the University terminated both Lu’s right to employment and his scholarship. The situation led him to file complaints regarding his mistreatment by his faculties and colleagues which further put him (illegally) under strict police monitoring for no rhyme or reason.
With problems mounting up, Lu took the attempt to meet Charles Wight, the head of the graduate school. Although Wight assured to handle the loss of Lu’s scholarship yet he also took a detour and asked Lori McDonald, the Assistant Director of Student Affairs, to have Lu deported back to Taiwan.
False allegations, prohibition from filing complaints, and denial of justice Per the claims of Lu, the chief perpetrator of the gross injustice meted out to him was Lori McDonald. It was McDonald who instigated eight defendants to falsely document that Lu had some criminal charges and mental disorder in his immigration records. The report on Lu’s mental instability was unethically orchestrated with the help of a poor excuse of a social worker Ryan Randall. Moreover, McDonald restricted Lu from filing further complaints regarding harassment by school authorities and urged immigration officer Todd McWhorter to ensure prohibition of Lu’s re-entry visa back to the States.
“McDonald and other faculties even drooped down to the level of extorting me”, noted Lu.
“They demanded that if I want the freedom to remain in the US I must pay the tuition in full. I certainly disagreed and filed my first internal complaint in 2012. University auditors (Michael G. Goodrich and Charles Piele) did find some mistakes but unfortunately, refused to ask McDonald to correct them.”
However, while in Taiwan, in 2016, Lu attained his job performance letter as an outcome of his first lawsuit. He was shocked to find that the letter was only loaded with fake and negative information from his supervisor Mike Cottle in order to jeopardize his chances of recruitment. Not only that, Lu also discovered that the University of Utah had even gone to the length of releasing negative information about him to North Dakota in 2012 (where he was about to enroll) to ruin his prospect of working in other universities.
In the meanwhile, in 2015, Lu had sued the University of Utah under the charges of Employment under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. But it was the same fate again. The Court dismissed the case in 2018 citing delay in filing the claim while the Act actually permits an even longer time-limit to file a case. Lu further tried to fill the EEOC claim but his appeal was denied by the Court in 2019.
Disregard for equal rights and justice in the U.S. Judiciary system
There is a serious disregard for equal rights and justice in the U.S. Judiciary system, especially when it comes to minorities. In April 2021, Lu came to know about more cases of mistreatments against innocent minorities by the University of Utah. Among the numerous cases, the most baseless and menacing one was the case of Chritina Axson v Xan Johnson. Christina’s only fault was that she refused to utter “F***” during her acting training and thus was debarred from taking further classes by the Theater School faculty members at the University of Utah.
Utah Governmental Immunity Act shielding all human rights violations
But why is it that the University of Utah always found a way out to shield their unethical actions despite stark evidence? Lu revealed that the Utah Government can still protect the University from the legal aftermath of their mistreatment to minorities through the shield of Utah Governmental Immunity Act.
The war is still on, Lu needs support
The only good thing amid this lengthy horrid account of racial discrimination and human rights violation is that Lu is still determined to continue his fight for justice. He wants to bring to light the unspeakable mistreatment meted out to him and similar victims by the University of Utah and U.S. government officials’ and needs mass support for his mission. It’s about time the Americans and the world wake up to the reality of the severe injustice prevailing in the American academic, law enforcement, social service and judiciary systems.
